


To Serve the Light

by sgteam14283



Category: Assassin's Creed, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Renaissance, First Meetings, Gen, freerunning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-20
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 16:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/889385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sgteam14283/pseuds/sgteam14283
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint is assigned to protect a friend of the Order from those who want him dead. When his path crosses with another assassin it will change both of their lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Serve the Light

**Author's Note:**

> for be_compromised's 2013 promptathon. This was the fill for sugar_fey who want Clint and Natasha in a Renaissance AU and I've been wanting to do an Assassin's Creed crossover with them so I was glad to write it. Anyways, don't own anything I just play in the sandbox. Enjoy!

Clint watched from the rooftop silently as Leonardo left the building and made his way down the busy street. He’d been watching over the inventor for a week now and even he had to admit that Ezio’s friend was brilliant; he’d even come up with sketches to make new arrows that would explode on contact or send smoke to confuse his target for several seconds so he could strike without being seen. Clint didn’t know if that bordered on brilliant or crazy but he let the man continue with his scribbles-as long as he was alive Clint didn’t care what he did. 

Quickly making his way down to street level, Clint made sure he blended with the crowd as best he could with his white robes (he really needed to dye them so they wouldn’t stand out as much) while keeping an eye on da Vinci. Knowing that the man would wander the markets ‘looking for inspiration,’ which meant flirting with the women who caught his eye, Clint made sure to keep far enough that his presence wouldn’t intrude but near enough in case something happened.

The streets were busy today and it seemed that the guards had decided to increase their presence as a result, on more than one occasion Clint had to duck into a nearby alleyway or jump into a haystack so they wouldn’t notice him. “ _Ezio was right when he said I’d lose my anonymity when I became an assassin._ ” Clint thought to himself as he climbed out of yet another haystack. “ _Although those_ stupido _guards wouldn’t know I was there until it was too late._ ” 

Brushing off bits of straw that still clung to his sleeve, Clint gazed around the market trying to spot Leonardo. It took a minute, long enough for him to start wondering if he needed to get up higher to spot the man, but then he spotted the familiar red cap on top of grey hair over by the courtesans and Clint slipped in-between a group of people in order to get closer to the man.

As he moved, Clint noticed a red headed courtesan that was a bit different than the others; she wore a more elegant outfit then the normal street girls and when she turned her head he noticed that she wore a mask. He was instantly suspicious, picking up his pace and pulling out one of his throwing knives as he moved. Gently shoving a man who suddenly appeared in his path, Clint ignored the protesting shout and quickly scanned the area for any guards that might suddenly get nosy and see what the commotion was. Seeing that there were none, he refocused his attention on Leonardo.

Nearing the woman, who had gotten da Vinci’s attention and was trying to engage her in conversation but she was playing shy (which was only making him try harder) when Clint noticed that she’d moved a hand to her hip and stealthy pull out something-poison most likely-out of her pouch. 

“Leonardo!” Clint yelled, knowing what she was going to do next. “Move!” he continued as Leonardo turned towards him and threw one of his knives towards the woman, who had frozen when she saw that she’d lost da Vinci’s attention. Sprinting towards his charge, he grabbed the man and gave him a push towards the nearest haystack while saying, “Stay hidden until I return!”

“But-” Leonard started to protest as he was being hustled away.

“Just do it!” Clint interrupted while giving the man another push, this one into the haystack Clint had been not that long ago. That taken care of, Clint focused on getting through the chaos that the market had become in all of this and looked around for the other assassin; angry that she’d been able to doge his knife (although barely from the looks of it), letting it embed itself into the wooden post she’d been leaning against. Spotting the tell-tale red hair as she ran down the street and used one of the lifts to gain access to the rooftops, Clint sprinted after her and triggered the lift with his feet as he closed his hand around the rope-letting the motion propel him up. Leaping onto the roof, he was moving forwards with little hesitation and chased after the redhead. 

As he ran, Clint couldn’t help but admire how fast she moved despite her outfit-if he hazarded a guess it was that she was just as experienced as him. Leaping across a divide, he was slowly closing the gap but needed to close it more if he wanted to get her before she got to the _Vaticano_ district; if she got there before he caught her then with all the papal guards around she could easily disappear. Seeing her run across some scaffolding and leap towards a hanging rope, using it to swing herself around a corner, he quickly followed-letting go a few seconds before he reached the platform in order to propel himself forwards a bit more than normal. 

He’d been confident that he’d stick the landing, but should have thought that she might be waiting on the other side of the corner to catch him blind. And she almost did; the knife she threw towards Clint barely missed him, ripping his sleeve. Seeing that she’d miscalculated, she turned and fled up towards the flat rooftop.

Clint gave chase and made sure he had a hand on one of his knives incase the opportunity presented itself. But she was quick and soon reached the rooftop, as did Clint. Seeing that she was backed into a corner, there was no where else to run or any nearby buildings to escape to and he highly doubted she could swim. Slowing to a stop, he pulled out his bow and aimed for the woman- letting the arrow fly.

Natasha pulled out her specialty made fan at the same time he was arming himself and whipped it open, pulling it towards her and let the metal sections deflect the arrow away from her. Smirking she said, “You missed.”

“I never miss.” Clint shot back, letting his bow drop and going for his knife. He hesitated a second, debating if he should wait, and seeing movement realized that she'd seen his hesitation and acted on it. Gripping the knife, he braced himself and blocked her knife, both pushing off each other and slowly circling each other.

“Shame you have to die, I enjoyed chasing you.” Clint said while running his gaze over the woman’s body. She looked to be the same age as him, and her toned figure spoke of someone who was an expert at working for her money. Her eyes were a brilliant blue and he briefly wondered if her hair was a natural color or if she had dyed it for the job.

“And I enjoyed running. Not many people are willing to chase me.” Natasha said as she looked at the assassin who had stopped her from poisoning Leonardo. “And even fewer who would try to stop a Borgia assassin.” If she could stall long enough then maybe she could still use the poison on him, even if it wasn’t her intended target.

“Well they should’ve known that trying to take out a great inventor like Leonardo would be foolish.” Clint was now near enough to use his hidden blade on her but she wouldn’t stay still long enough for him to use it. “If you don’t mind me asking, but what’s your name? I hate to kill someone without knowing their name first.” 

“Natasha. Yours?” 

“Clint.” 

“Well, Clint, it’s been nice running from you.” Natasha said as she leapt towards him once more and tried to inject the poison into his blood. But he moved away from her while pushing his hand into hers-sending the poison flying to the ground and the liquid spilling over the dirt. “ _Bastardo!_ ” she cursed, angry that he’d been able to stop her and sent a punch in the direction of his head.

Clint was ready this time and managed to duck away from the blow, sending one in response. But Natasha blocked as well, bringing her foot towards his and sweeping his feet out from under him. Hitting the ground hard, Clint didn’t pause in getting up and winced slightly at the twinge of pain in his back that the fall had caused. As his hood fell onto his shoulders Clint activated his hidden blade and lunged, trying to stab her but she managed to twist away at the very last second and replied with slamming her head against his.

His vision darkening, Clint stumbled back and tensed-waiting for Natasha’s next blow to come. But instead he heard the rustle of fabric accompanied by the sound of footsteps and after shaking his head to clear his vision, saw that Natasha was gone. Running to the edge, he peered into the murky depths of the river and saw the slight ripples indicating that something had broken the surface. Cursing inwardly, Clint waited for Natasha to surface and when more than enough time had passed he wondered if she had drowned. 

Not finding any trace of her along the docks, he was left with that conclusion and turned to get Leonardo back to his house safely but as he ran along the rooftops had a feeling that Natasha was still out there.

\--

“No.” Ezio folded his arms and frowned, looking at Clint from across the room. “It’s too risky.”

Clint sighed, he knew that it would be a challenge to convince Ezio of the plan but he didn’t think that it would be _this_ hard. “But _maestro_ , she’s going to keep on trying until she succeeds and that will only mean that Leonardo is dead. You said he’s angered Cesare by stalling the reproduction of his weapons that you’ve destroyed and that’s why he took the bounty out in the first place.”

“You said she never surfaced from the water.” 

“I said I never _saw_ her come up again, for all I know Natasha could’ve swam to some hidden point to make her escape. I know she’s still out there, if you saw the way she fought then you’d know it to. If she hadn’t been trying to kill me I would’ve thought she was on our side...she must of been trained by the best.”

Ezio regarded Clint’s statement and realized that if what he said was true, then the Order had a problem. He couldn’t have an assassin who wasn't in the Order running around Rome, if she killed the wrong person and it was public enough then Cesare could (and would) wrongly blame them and all their hard work would be for nothing. 

That only left one option then.

“Fine. We’ll go with your plan, but when you get her take her out. I don’t want a Templar assassin running around the city.” Ezio said eventually in a tone that said the discussion was done.

Clint nodded and watched Ezio leave the room, his mind already busy with planning the mission and what he’d need to do in order to catch Natasha and take her down.

\--

Looking across the plaza from his spot in the shadows, Clint kept an eye on Leonardo and the crowd. They were trying to draw Natasha (or anyone else for that matter) out in the hopes of ending the price that the Borgia had put on the painters head. So far no one else had tried to attack the man, but when you were dealing with the ruling family of Rome one could never be too sure how far they would go in order to get what they wanted.

It had taken some convincing, but Ezio and La Volpe had allowed Clint to take a few recruits and thieves with him to run interference when the need arose. They had strict orders not to reveal themselves until Clint gave the signal and the plan was to have Leonardo out in public for as long as necessary, then Clint (and the other assassin’s if needed) would remove the threats from the picture. That had been three days ago and while they were coming up empty, Leonardo was enjoying the time outdoors and was halfway done with his painting. 

Scanning the crowd, Clint looked for the familiar red hair or anything that might look out of the ordinary. Hours passed with still nothing to show for their waiting and Leonardo was packing up his supplies when he spotted it-that red hair he’d know anywhere. 

Instantly on edge, Clint slipped out from his hiding place and first signaled for the assassin’s to stay where they were, then for the thieves to create a distraction so he could get a better look at the woman. The thieves ran out into the plaza laughing and pushing each other like they were no more than out for a laugh, making sure to angle themselves closer to the target. Once they were closer, one of the boys shoved another into the woman and he cut the strings to her coin pouch-quickly running away. By this time Clint was nearer and glancing at the outfit and the way her hand moved to where her coin pouch used to be but didn’t give chase only confirmed what he already knew. 

“ _It’s Natasha._ ” Clint thought as he slowly mirrored her movements and created his own distraction by throwing a handful of coins onto the ground so that the guards were focused on the sudden crowd trying to get enough coins to feed their families.

Natasha kept her eyes moving, making sure that Clint or any other assassin’s weren’t there to try and stop her. She needed to kill Leonardo. She could not fail again. She had to finish the job otherwise Cesare wouldn’t be happy and there would be hell to pay, especially since he was still mad about letting Leonardo and even Clint get away last time. He hadn't been happy to know that she'd had one of Auditore's assassin's in proximity and she'd chosen to let him live; Cesare had made it very clear to her that should it happen again she'd better kill them. 

Pulling out her dagger she approached Leonardo from behind and, with silent feet, stopped just short of him while raising it. Just as she was about to plunge it into the man’s neck, another hand appeared and grabbed her wrist- stopping her from killing her target. Looking up she saw that it was Clint and Natasha snarled, pushing him away from her while wrenching her wrist from his grip. Turning so that she was facing him she slashed at Clint’s torso, “ _Stupido assassino!_ ”she growled as he moved quickly to doge her blows. “You think you can stop me?” Getting an idea, she took a step back and ran for a building-quickly climbing up and calling out, “Try and catch me again if you dare!” 

Clint bolted for the nearest handhold to get up to the roofs as she taunted him and scrambled up, leaping to where Natasha was and followed when she ran. As he ran, Clint dimly wondered if this was a ploy to get him alone so she could take him out and then take Leonardo out with no resistance. “ _If that was the case then she’ll be sorry to learn that he’s still guarded._ ” he thought to himself as he jumped to the next roof and rolled to soften the blow of landing on such a hard surface. 

He hardly had time to straighten up before he saw an arm swinging towards him and Clint ducked, popping back up and swinging his own fist. It connected and he saw Natasha stumble back a few paces but she balanced herself and ran towards Clint, anger flashing in her eyes. As they battled Clint noticed that her outfit was the same one that he’d seen her in a few weeks ago but now it wasn’t as pristine; it was torn and dirty all over and as she wrestled her way out a hold Clint saw that there were faded bruises on her exposed skin. And while she was still holding her own, it seemed like she was tiring quicker than last time. 

Sweeping Natasha’s legs out from under her, Clint quickly pinned her against the ground and looked into her eyes. Her mask had fallen off during the fight and as he stared into her eyes instead of confidence there was fear and dread. “What, you’re not going to beg for your life?” he asked with a hint of confusion in his voice.

Natasha shrugged as best she was able to, “Does it matter? Since I’ve failed again Cesare is going to kill me, he told me so when he sent me out again.”

Clint paused for a moment, knowing that that could be a real possibility-Cesare and his sister were known for being unforgiving when it came to failure. But he didn’t let his guard down, it could still be a trap and she was still waiting for him to slip up. “It would be a shame, you’re very talented.” Clint admitted as he shifted his hold slightly, loosening it enough to show Natasha that he wasn’t going to kill her just yet but not enough that she could break free. “It’s a shame to waist all that talent on someone like Cesare.” 

“Well I need to survive and he pays.” Natasha replied, wondering why Clint hadn’t killed her by now.

“What if...what if you came with me and joined the Order?” Clint blurted out, surprising himself with the question. When they were fighting he had seen something in her eyes that reminded him of himself from when he was having to fight tooth and nail in order to survive on the streets, before Ezio had convinced him to join the Assassin's Guild. And having more female assassin’s would only benefit them, they could get into places the others couldn’t; plus they wouldn't have to rely on the courtesan's from _Rosa del Fiore_ so much.

“You mean become an assassin?” Natasha asked, her eyebrows furrowing together in confusion. They were on two different sides of the fight and he was supposed to kill her, not ask her to join his order. “Why?”

“Because you let me live the first time we met; you had a clear advantage but you didn’t kill me. That tells me that you’re not completely hopeless.” Clint said as he pulled Natasha into a sitting position, but not letting go of his hold on her. “Besides, you said you’re dead anyways if you go back to Cesare and why not live?”

“But you’re supposed to kill me.” 

“I’m making a different call.” Clint said as he let go of Natasha and stood. Holding out a hand for her to take he continued, “What do you say, join the Order?”

Natasha looked at Clint’s face and saw that he was telling the truth, that he was letting her live and giving her the opportunity to atone for past sins. 

After hesitating she nodded and took his hand saying, “I’ll join.”


End file.
